Wednesday, July 3, 2013

10:59 AM

U.S Sen. Tammy Baldwin called Wednesday for Congress to cap student loan interest rates at 3.4 percent for one more year.

On Monday, the interest rates for government-backed student loans doubled from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent after Congress failed to agree on a measure to cap the rates in the short or long term. Congress is expected to vote on a Senate Dem proposal that would retroactively lower the rate to 3.4 percent for another year.

Baldwin, who was preceded by Wisconsin students talking about their struggle to pay student loans, said the vote was only the "first step" toward making college more affordable for students across the country. Baldwin said the country also needs to look at other avenues for student debt relief and a separate measure that would properly inform students about the cost and terms of private student loans.

"We have got to constantly ask ourselves how college can be made affordable and accessible to all," Baldwin said on the UW-Madison campus. "How we can make it a pathway to the middle class, not a pathway to indebtedness?"

Baldwin said that attempts to reach a compromise with congressional Republicans have not been fruitful and said the GOP version of the bill was making the situation worse because it could allow those interest rates to soar above the current 6.8 percent rate. She also said lack of agreement on the caps within Democratic ranks was mainly the result of the looming deadline they had to work out a short-term fix.

Baldwin also addressed a recent directive from the Obama administration to hold off on a part of the Affordable Care Act that mandating businesses with more than 50 workers must provide health care insurance for their employees. Baldwin said the move came as a surprise to many and she is going to be briefed on the administration's plans "imminently." She expressed some frustration that the process has become "the most partisan exercises I've ever seen," but acknowledged there will be "some bumps along the way."

"We haven't gotten much cooperation [from Republicans] in the implementation phase, but I think we need to have confidence. ... I have to say that I expect that was the motivation, is that we need to have the confidence and we have to make sure we have the time to work on it," she said.